Here’s a v-mail message that Roadguy received yesterday morning, a few hours after the new 35W Bridge opened:

I just want to make a comment: That’s probably the ugliest bridge there is in America now.

Indeed, not everyone’s enamored; a few more comments from today’s paper are here. You can decide for yourself at the Strib’s photo gallery from yesterday’s opening. I do like the shot from the helicopter at dawn — if only I were a real photographer, I too could fly around the city. But being on the ground was all right, and parts of the roof and windshield of the Roadguymobile are visible for a moment in this video from opening day.

Meanwhile, I’m clearing out my hundreds of bridge-construction photos, like this one, which was taken as I passed a trash bin in July:

It looked quite a bit like a purple rolling pin, but I never got around to asking what role it might have played in building the bridge. Also don’t think I ever shared this one of my boot, taken by my colleague Boz:

No, Roadguy did not leave his bootmarks in wet concrete. But someone did, inside one of the segments. There were only the two prints, so maybe the guy said “holy crap!” before getting any farther.

Either way, may the concrete remain in place for a long, long time.

Some random transportation bits, in no particular order….

Alert reader Prof. S. calls our attention to a Wall Street Journal page-one story that ran under this headline: “San Francisco Ponders: Could Bike Lanes Cause Pollution?” Prof. S. offers this summary:

Basically, it’s a story of a guy who sued to stop bike lanes from being created by pointing out the city failed to do an environmental review, which he argues would show bike lanes are worse for the environment.

There’s also a short video. And no, alert reader Pete, I’m not posting this to restart the bike-car war — few are more weary of that conflict than Roadguy. The only real criterion: I found the story worth reading. (Speaking of Pete, click on his name for a photo essay of his impressively lengthy bike commute.)

Also from Prof. S. and the WSJ is this opinion piece critical of lowering the speed limit.

Alert reader Art, meanwhile, directs our attention to this Q&A, in which the author of the previously discussed “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)” handles some questions from readers of nytimes.com.

We conclude today with a little anecdote shared by the original Greengirl, whom Roadguy encountered yesterday here in the drab hallways of headquarters. Turns out that, very recently, Greengirl was a passenger in a car in Wisconsin, and the driver decided to make a U-turn at an intersection with a signal. Alert readers like Greengirl know that this is a big no-no in Dairyland, but before she could properly voice her concerns to the driver, the deed was done — and the po-po quickly pulled the car over.

Alas, a transportation blogger can only help those who read him.

We’ve had quite a bit of bike talk the past week or so, but hey, ’tis the season, so here are a couple more related links.

The first is to a fellow Strib blog, BodyTalk, which looks at a Blue Cross program to give bicyclists discounts on some merchandise if they bike a certain number of miles; the post is here, and Josephine would love your comments.

The second link is from the New York Times; yesterday’s paper had this story about the huge success of Paris’ bike-rental program. More than 20,000 bikes, 1,450 rental stations, 120,000 rides a day, millions of euros for the city. On the less-rosy side, bike-car tensions are rising (surprise), and there have been three fatalities among bike renters. Overall, it’s going vastly better than our local yellow bike experiments of past years. We’ll have to see whether any U.S. cities try this on a grand scale.

Roadguy does not always wade through his mail as fast as he should, and he tends not to pay as much attention to mail that comes from P.R. firms, so he apologies for the short notice on this, but…. The folks from BlackBerry are sponsoring “a physical and mental contest to navigate Minneapolis” on Saturday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., and it sounds like it might be an interesting time. The event is free, it starts and ends at the Guthrie Theater, and participants get to play with a new BlackBerry (and possibly win one). Registration is full, but a spokeswoman I contacted this afternoon says that it’s not too late to get on the waiting list, and that when the event was held in Boston a few weeks ago, about 20 teams from the list got to participate. (150 two-person teams will take part.) She also said there will be giveaways to people who don’t do the actual race. You can check it all out here.

First, a little something from alert reader Coco:

Thought you might enjoy this beautiful example of parallel parking I found outside my apartment:

Good grief — that’s pretty exceptional. Given the cost of gas, maybe the driver decided to stop right there to save fuel.

There’s also the possibility that the person holds the contrarian view that gas prices aren’t that high — alert reader Matty found a story in Slate titled “Gasoline is Cheap.”

Alert reader BarryS, meanwhile, directs our attention to this USA Today story about freeway removal — Oklahoma City is the latest to join this urban trend. Roadguy was thinking that the Twin Cities largely escaped the elevated-freeway boom back in the day, but BarryS notes a couple of examples:

Oklahoma City is doing something that I wish would happen in the North Loop — removing the highway and replacing it with a park and a boulevard. I’d like to see the I-94 viaducts in the North Loop removed, and 3rd and 4th streets become connecting thru streets.

That’s the catch with elevated roadways — they can be handy to drive on but are unpleasant to live near.

Finally, I got an e-mail from a P.R. firm for Verizon Wireless that offered tips on phone usage in the car; you can view the list here. My favorite was this:

Do not engage in complex, stressful or emotional calls while driving.

Roadguy notes that it’s not so great to have such conversations with your passengers, either.

May your Memorial Day weekend be full of pleasant chatter — and entirely moron-free.

• Moving up at MnDOT: An engineer takes the No. 2 spot; news brief here.
• A 3-minute limit on vehicle idling? Minneapolis is considering an ordinance, and there’s a committee meeting on the topic Thursday morning; a news release is here.
• Should a man give up his bus seat to a woman? This MNspeak post asked the question and got more than 100 comments.
• Street furniture: Minneapolis is looking at its benches, bus shelters and more; a Strib story from Tuesday is here.
• Bike celebrations: The new Freewheel Midtown Bike Center on the Midtown Greenway has a grand opening this Friday morning from 7-9 a.m. (and, for late risers, an open house from 4-7 p.m.); click here for the city news release on the event, here for more details on the bike center, here for a Greenway Coalition announcement. And on Sunday, there’s a naming ceremony for the Sabo bike and pedestrian bridge over Hiawatha Avenue. The celebration is from 3-5 p.m., with a program at 4 p.m; more info here.
• Speaking of bikes: Steve Brandt’s Wednesday column looks at bicycling in Minneapolis.

And speaking of MNspeak, if you have any insights as to why a post on that site referred to me as “the ironically named John Foti,” I hope you’ll share. (Is it ironic that my name isn’t John?)